Soccer
Favorite athlete: Mia Hamm
Favorite team: U.S. Women’s National Team
Favorite memory competing in sports: Winning the U.S Youth Soccer National Championship this summer.
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sport: I scored an own goal in one of my games, which was very embarrassing.
Music on iPod: Lots of country, some alternative and rap. It’s all very different.
Future plans: I plan to play soccer at Drexel University while studying to be a Health Science major. Then going to grad school to become a Physical Therapist.
Words to live by: “Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.”
One goal before turning 30: Graduate from Drexel with a physical therapy degree, get a job and have a family.
One thing people don’t know about me: I can sing almost all the lyrics to Disney movie songs.
By Mary Jane Souder
Maggie Daeche was born to play defense.
So effective was the Neshaminy center back that she was named the SOL National Conference Player of the Year and also earned PSCA All-State recognition despite playing a position that is rarely in the spotlight.
Daeche was the undeniable heart and soul of a Redskins squad that captured the District One AAAA title.
“Maggie sets the bar very high, so when she goes out for any game – whether it’s the district championship or a regular league game, she’s always focused,” coach Chelsea Lovelace said. “She knows what she has to do, she knows what her teammates have to do, and she’s going to make sure we all get it done.
“She’s very consistent, and she’s a very hard worker. She never gives less than 100 percent whenever she steps on the field. She’s very technical, which you don’t really find in a center back.
“Usually, they’re somewhat technical, but Maggie can receive the ball with a great first touch and make a pass that goes right to someone’s feet, which you usually don’t find in that position. When she has the ball at her feet, you’re not worrying, and she’s comfortable clearing the ball with either foot.”
While there’s no questioning Daeche’s immense talent, it’s the intangibles that set the three-year captain apart.
“Her energy is contagious,” Lovelace said. “Even if we’re down by a goal or not playing our best, she doesn’t crawl into a shell.
“She’s still motivating, she still has faith in her teammates, and she leads by example. Yes, she is good, but she also works very hard, and when people see her doing that – say we’re in a funk in a game and we cannot get it together. We just need that one person to bring us back up and get us re-energized – it’s always Maggie.”
Daeche’s passion is unmistakable and so is her irrepressible personality.
“I like to think I’m a talkative person, and I think a lot of times it’s enhanced on the soccer field – I’m louder than I am in real life,” she said. “I’m definitely more talkative, more demanding.”
It’s a trait that has served the Redskins well.
“She’s very vocal,” Lovelace said. “Some of her teammates say she doesn’t shut up, but it’s a good thing.
“It’s going to be very quiet without her. It’s going to be something our team is going to miss.”
Next year, Daeche will take her talents to Drexel University, a school that provides the perfect mix of academics and athletics. Her final list came down to two vastly different schools – Drexel and James Madison University.
“I love the city campus,” Daeche said. “Coming from a rural type of area, I would never have guessed that I like the city.
“When I went to visit, I just loved it. I loved the classes. I met people that worked there, and they were so welcoming. I talked with a few girls that were on the team, and they were so accepting, and they made me feel so welcome.
“Also, Drexel is such an amazing school. It’s a door for many opportunities because of the co-op program which interested me a lot because I’m looking into physical therapy, and their program for physical therapy is unreal.”
Also playing no small role in Daeche’s decision is the school’s close proximity to home. Family is important to the senior standout, whose younger brother, Alex, is a freshman in high school.
“I want my parents to be able to come to my games,” she said of Sarah and Larry Daeche. “I want them to be close because I have a great relationship with them.”
*****
Soccer has been part of Daeche’s life for as long as she can remember.
“I started playing soccer when I was two-and-a-half or three, playing for an in-house soccer team for Hulmeville Soccer Club,” she said. “My dad and aunt were the coaches. I played with my older cousins on a team with girls and boys who were three years older than me. It was fun.”
Daeche didn’t limit herself to just soccer, and for periods of time, she competed in softball, gymnastics, basketball, track and lacrosse.
“Definitely those sports helped develop me as an athlete, giving me different views,” she said.
Soccer, however, was her passion, and she began playing travel soccer in second grade. In the summer after fourth grade, Daeche changed clubs, joining the YMS Xplosion.
“I remember the first year I was on the team we went to Ohio, and that was something totally new for me, and it was just an awesome experience,” said Daeche, whose YMS squad captured the national championship in Frisco, Texas, last summer. “Playing on a high intensity team where every game was a challenge – that’s definitely what interested me, sparked how much I loved the sport.”
Daeche admits she is fiercely competitive. In absolutely everything.
“It runs in my family,” she said. “When our family plays games, we get very competitive.
“My brother and I are constantly arguing over the littlest things in games, but it’s fun though. During the school year, we don’t have time (for games). He also plays on a travel soccer team, so we’re all going in 25 different directions, but in the summer our go-to game is Rummy 500. We play with my mom, my brother and my cousins when we’re at the beach, and it gets intense. We really get into it.”
Daeche’s family ties were a significant part of her high school soccer experience. As a freshman, she was a starter in the defensive backfield for a team that included her cousin – Stephanie Donahue – and went on to capture the state title.
“It’s been honestly such an amazing experience because as a freshman I came into the team, and my older cousin who has been a role model for me my entire life was a senior,” Daeche said. “That was definitely a comfort coming in as a freshman because I was so scared, but all the girls on the team, including my cousin, made it such a fun experience, not to mention that we won states.
“The whole team is like a family. Sophomore and junior years, although the outcome wasn’t as great as we wanted it to be, the memories we had with all those girls were awesome.”
Daeche capped a stellar career with a district championship, and appropriately, she shared this one with another cousin – freshman Kristin Curley.
“They joke that I can only win a championship when my family is on the field,” Daeche said. “It was such an incredible experience to be part of a team that was such a family to me.
“I know that in 10 years if I called any of the girls that I played with for any of the four years, they would answer the phone and just be there for me for anything. It’s so awesome.”
During her four-year high school career, Daeche has excelled in both the midfield and defensive backfield.
“If we had two of her, we would have put one in the back and one in the midfield, but I think this year in the back is where she found her role on the team,” Lovelace said. “She’s always been a leader, and this year she was very confident in our team and in her teammates. Not that she wasn’t in years past, but I think this year was a different kind of confidence.
“She was very comfortable with the girls, and all of them being good friends, getting along on and off the field – that really helped take our team to the next level because talent can only go to a certain point. After that, it’s working hard for each other on and off the field and just trusting each other.”
Off the field, Daeche excels in the classroom. She is a member of the National Honor Society and is involved in community service with NHS. She is active in her church youth group and recently travelled to Philadelphia to serve dinner at a homeless shelter.
She plans to pursue a career in physical therapy, a field that piqued her interest after watching one of her club soccer teammates go through five surgeries in the past four years.
“Seeing her and how hard she worked to get back on the field – she’s playing now and committed to a college,” Daeche said. “Seeing that – it’s just awesome the stuff the physical therapists can do. The work they put in and the results the come out of it is really neat.”
Daeche undoubtedly will be a difference maker in people’s lives just as she was for a soccer team that exceeded even its own expectations this season.
“To this day, we text in our group chat and we’re sad that the season is over,” she said. “When they had the state (soccer) final, we were all texting – we missed each other and we said, ‘That should be us,’ but it was still an awesome season. Who would have thought a young team like ours would have won districts.”
